Chinese typewriter



Oct. 24, 1950 R. s. BRUMBAUGH 2,526,633

CHINESE TYPEWRITER Filed Sept. 25, 1946 2 SheetsSheet 2 no 34 so 24' Id 37' it .3 91;

FIG. 4

FIG. 5

ROBEPT S: 'BRUMBA UGH,

luvs/W0 H I s AT'ToR/ve Y.

- Chinese ideographs.

Patented Oct. 24, 1950 UNITED STATES; PATENT OFFICE (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) 4 Claims.

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment of any royalty thereon.

This invention is in typewriters and more particularly is a machine for writing Chinese characters.

Numerous attempts have been made in the past to devise mechanical means for writing Often, these devices have taken the form of a group of discs, each bearing characters on its periphery (the total number of characters varying between perhaps four thousand and ten thousand), selection of a character depending upon the pressing of two keys on a keyboard, one to select a disc and another to select a position thereon. Sometimes, a drum replaces the discs, and one key revolves the drum while another moves it or the platen of the typewriter lengthwise of the machine. Such machines are cumbersome and complicated and relatively very expensive.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide means and a method for mechanically inscribing the characters of the Chinese language.

A further important object of the invention is to provide a group of character elements which may be combined in a very large number of different ways to draw all or substantially all known Chinese characters.

An additional object is to provide means for readily converting a standard manual or electric typewriter for the writing of Chinese text.

Other objects will be apparent from a reading of the following specification and claims. In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows the elements which appear on the type pallets of a typewriter according to the preferred embodiment of my invention;

Figure 2 shows a representative hand-drawn Chinese character;

Figure 3 shows the same character transcribed through the use of my invention; and

Figures 4 and 5 show two additional complicated Chinese characters inscribed according to m invention.

My invention proposes the synthesization of the Chinese vocabulary by combining a relatively small number of geometric values in a very large number of different ways. The characters achieved in this fashion are somewhat stylized, but extensive experimentation has shown that they are entirely readable.

The invention herein described is of general application where the Chinese written vocabulary is involved but is especially intended for copying long .manuscripts. Transcription with brush and ink is in such cases very time-consuming and laborious and requires a degree of expertness possessed .by few individuals.

In Figure 1, there are shown a group of forty type faces which, according to my invention, are to be substituted for the forty type faces of the standard typewriter keyboard. As will appear more clearly hereinafter, more or fewer type faces can be provided within certain limitations.

The type faces are serially numbered from 1 through 40. Each type face on the lower half thereof bears one of the characters of the Standard American keyboard, they, of course, formingno part of my invention. On the upper half of each type face within a rectangular border l0" appears a simple geometrical element; the border will not be printed and is included merely to clarif the description.

The signs made by the various type pallets may be described with reference to the rectangles which enclosethem as follows:

1. A line along the left half of the lower margin;

2. A line along the left margin;

3. A diagonal bisecting the left and lower margins;

4. A diagonal bisecting the right and upper margins;

5. A diagonal bisecting the right and lower mar-' gins;

6. A diagonal bisecting the rectangle from the lower left to the upper right;

'7. A line from the center to the lower right corner;

8. A diagonal bisecting the rectangle from the lower right to the upper left;

9. A line bisecting the upper margin and extend-' ing to the center; A line vertically bisecting the rectangle;

A line horizontally bisecting the upper half of the rectangle;

A line on the lower half of the left margin;

A linealong the right half of the lower mar- V A line bisecting the lower margin extending to the center of the rectangle;

A line horizontally bisecting the upper left quadrant of the rectangle;

A diagonal bisecting the left and upper margins;

A line from the center to the upper right corher;

A line along the right margin;

A line horizontally bisecting the upper right quadrant of the rectangle;

A line along the upper half of the left mar- A line from the center to the upper left corner;

A line along the upper half of the right mar- A line horizontally bisecting the lower half of the rectangle;

A line bisecting the left margin and extending to the center;

A line extending from the center of the lower left corner;

A line along the upper margin;

A line horizontally bisecting the lower left quadrant;

A line horizontally bisecting the rectangle; A line along the lower half of the right mar- A line along the left half of the upper margin; A line horizontally bisecting the lower right quadrant;

A line from the lower left corner to a point three-fourths up the right margin;

A line bisecting the right margin and extending to the center;

A line along the right half of the upper mar- A diagonal from the lower left corner to the upper right corner;

A diagonal from the lower right corner to the upper left corner;

A line along the lower margin;

A diagonal'fromthe lower right corner to a point three-fourths up the left margin;

A diagonal from the upper left corner to a point three-fourths down the right margin; and

A diagonal from the upper right corner to a point three-fourths down the left margin.

The elements will thus be seen to include horizontal and vertical lines of different lengths variously spaced from the extremities of the type faces. Several types of diagonal lines also are shown. The lengths of the lines as well as the angles thereof are all interrelated so that it is possible to combine the elements in an immense number of different designs. Even the extralength diagonals of type faces 32, 35, 33, 38, 39, and 453 are related to the other elements. Thus, the diagonal of type face 35 has a perpendicular twice the height of the diagonal of type face 5 while that of type face 32 is one and one half times the height of type face 6. Not all of the possible combinations of strokes provide usable designs, of course. Few characters can be formed with fewer than five strokes, and few require more than thirty. For practical purposes, however, the number of usable combinations is infinite.

To illustrate the formation of a simple design with the type of my invention, assume that it is desired to form a square in the lower left quadrant of an area the size of a type pallet; one would select type faces I, l2, l4, and 24, and the carriage, of course, would not be advanced between strokes. To form a square the size of a type pallet, the same technique would be employed, but the type faces used would be 2, It, 26, and 3?. To form a diamond-shaped figure centrally located within the area of a pallet, the use of type faces 3, 4, 5, and i6 is indicat d.

It may here be noted that, while the expressions pallet and face may be applied with equal propriety to the printing surface of a type bar, in this specification the expression type face or the equivalent should be understood to include the entire printing surface of a type bar, whereas type pallet, pallet area, etc., will refer to that part of a type bar which bears a symbol used to inscribe Chinese characters or other designs in accordance with my invention.

The inscription of a Chinese character can be performed with a hand-operated typewriter of conventional form. This can be shown by referring to the ideograph of Figure 3 which could be formed in the following manner (the strokes bearing primed reference characters corresponding to the pallets of Figure 1). First, type pallet 3'! is actuated and then (with the carriage held at or returned each time to the starting position) strokes l0 and 3d are inscribed; the strokes, of course, can be made in any order. The carriage is then permitted to advance one space and strokes 38, 2 i2, 31', and it! are made, after which the carriage is permitted to advance to its third pallet area on the first line of the figure, it being understood that eachChinese character is in the preferred mode of practicing my invention inscribed in a square area equivalent to sixteen type pallets. After the fourth pallet area is inscribed, the platen is rotated one step, and the carriage returned to its original position so that the second line can be inscribed in the following fashion: 20, M, 33', space, 24', I4, 22, space, 25, 32', 33', space, M. Many strokes can be made by more than one type pallet and in more than one pallet area. Thus, the vertical stroke a. Figure 4, can be formed eitherby pallet I8 (in the first pallet area of the fourth line of the figure) or by pallet 2 (in the second pallet area, same line).

It will be apparent from the foregoing that some advantage would be obtained by modifying a standard typewriter to eliminate the automatic advance of the carriage; the carriage would then be advanced after each stroke by striking a special key or perhaps the space bar.

As a matter of fact, my invention is intended for use primarily with an electric typewriter wherein key, platen, and carriage movements are controlled by punched cards. Electric typewriters are, of course, well known, and neither the typewriter itself nor any modifications which might be found desirable to adapt such a machine to the practice of my invention constitutes any part of the subject matter of this application. Even where manual operation is practiced, however, the use of my invention, while perhaps not much faster than brush-and-ink transcription, provides the advantage of making a large number of copies simultaneously.

Since most of the characters of Figure l utilize no more space on a type face than a standard typewriter character and since the synthesis of the Chinese vocabulary requires no more than the forty strokes illustrated, it is feasible and desirable to use the space normally occupied by lower case letters for some other alphabet. In Figure 1, English capital letters are included on the type faces together with numbers and certain commonly used punctuation marks. Even the extra length characters, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39, and 49, require less than half of the face of a standard type bar so that the lower portions of their type faces can also be used. The English characters shown are normal and not reversed as they will actually appear on the type faces.

The foregoing description is in specific terms, and various modifications will suggest themselves, so that for the true scope of the invention reference should be had to the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A set of type pallets including pallets adapted to print individually a line along each side of an imaginary rectangle the size of a type pallet, diagonals through such a rectangle, and lines along each end half of each side of said rectangle, each of said lines and diagonals being adapted to join with at least one other line.

2. A set of type pallets including pallets adapted to print individually a line along each side of an imaginary rectangle the size of the type pallet, diagonals through such a rectangle, lines one half the length of each side of said rectangle, lines diagonally bisecting each quadrant'of said rectangle, lines bisecting said rectangle horizontally and vertically, and lines bisecting each quadrant of said rectangle horizontally, each of said lines and diagonals being adapted to join at least one other line.

3. A set of type pallets including pallets adapted to print individually a line along each side of an imaginary rectangle, diagonals through such a rectangle, lines one half the length of each side of said rectangle, lines diagonally bisecting each quadrant of said rectangle, lines bisecting said rectangle horizontally and vertically, lines bisecting eachquadrant of said rectangle horizontally, and lines horizontally bisecting the upper half of said rectangle and the lower half of said rectangle,

each of said lines and diagonals being adapted to join at least one other line.

4. A set of type pallets including pallets adapted to print individually a line along each side of an imaginary rectangle, diagonals through such a rectangle, lines one half the length of each side of said rectangle, lines diagonally bisecting each quadrant of said rectangle, lines bisecting said rectangle horizontally and vertically, lines bisecting each quadrant of said rectangle horizontally, and lines horizontally bisecting the upper half of said rectangle and the lower half of said rectangle, and other pallets adapted to print diagonal lines having a vertical height one and one half times the height of said rectangle and diagonal lines having a vertical height twice the height of said rectangle, each of said lines and diagonals being adapted to join at least one other line.

ROBERT S. BRUMBAUGH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 39,296 Livermore July 21, 1863 356,245 Greene et al Jan. 18, 1887 1,777,622 OHare Oct. 7, 1930 2,139,452 Kreuzer Dec. 6, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 537,343 Great Britain of 1941 

